Byron Soldier's Homecoming Surprises Family

When two children sat on Santa's lap today, they wished for toys, an iPad, and their daddy to come home from serving overseas in the Army. Little did they know, their wish was about to come true.

2 months of planning, a $2,500 plane ticket, and a 15-hour flight.

Bobby Wright made it home for Christmas and there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Finally Wright's mother, Lynn Bassett, can breathe.

"It was just so hard. I'm so glad today is over," she says.

Bassett and her husband organized the surprise. They kept it a secret up until the very last second. They had to make sure Wright's wife had no idea.

"He wanted to surprise his wife for Christmas. She had asked me if I would buy him a plane ticket, and I said no way, it was just too expensive to have him home for Christmas," says Bassett.

Wright adds, "I was originally supposed to come home in January, my NCO got a little worried. He kind of helped me out, got me home for Christmas."

Under the guise of Lunch with Santa, an event in Byron, the covert operation went according to plan.

Wright's two children, one-year-old Olivia and seven-year-old Summer, made a Christmas wish on Santa's lap.

"Because I wanted to spend time with him for Christmas," says Summer.

The closer it was to the big reveal, the harder it was to keep the secret.

"I had to tell my wife that I was out in the field so I wouldn't talk to her," says Wright.

"It was killing us, the anticipation of waiting to tell her he was coming home for Christmas," says Bassett.

Wright was stationed in South Korea for a year and thought he was going to miss Christmas with his family.

He'll get to spend a month with his family in Byron.

"What more joy could I give his wife than a gift for him to come home for Christmas because she's been really missing him a lot," says Bassett as she starts to tear up. "I don't think I could want anything else. This is the best gift I could've asked for."